Does College Really Prepare You For Real Life?

I’m currently putting together the production schedule for my current short film Mourning Road (produced by Interstate Films) for which I am production manager and cinematographer. If you had asked me ten years ago when I graduated from Georgia State University where I would be now, I would probably hope that it wasn’t still making short films but you never know where your life is headed once you leave college with that diploma in hand.

“LIFE IN THE THEATRE”
In 2000 I walked out of GSU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in film with a minor in theatre. I was one of the lucky ones. When I left college I was already working as a audio/video/lighting technician for the company Full Circle Lighting (one of the premiere lighting companies in Georgia at the time that specialized in corporate special events). My first job in the theatre industry was actually for the theatre department of GSU as a props master and carpenter for the show Psycho Beach Party. Although my degree was in film making, I ended up spending most of my early years out of college in theatre. At GSU I was involved in several productions mostly as an actor but I was hired as the occasional documentarian of a production of Dracula that the university put on as well as several others. After that theatre production I worked for CATCo on the theatre productions Cheaper By the Dozen and Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs as assistant director and stage manager, respectfully.

At GSU I learned a lot in regards to technical theatre and that knowledge came into play early in my post college career. Even today I continue to work in theatre with Theatre in the Square (http://www.theatreinthesquare.com), Theatrical Outfit (http://www.theatricaloutfit.org/tickets.html), Georgia Ensemble Theatre (http://www.get.org), Horizon Theatre (http://www.horizontheatre.com), and True Colors Theatre Company (http://truecolorstheatre.org), to name a few. I’ve found it very easy to continue working in this field despite the poor economic climate as many of these very theatres continue to cut their budgets and shows from year to year.

“LIFE IN FILM”
Although I got my start in film by documenting several theatre productions, I did manage to be director of photography on several short films for college students (none of which are of any particular interests) before moving on to more interesting fare. In 2002 I worked on my first post-college film for Southlan-Films Night of the Hungry Dead, a short film in which I starred as several zombies. This lead to my starring role in the Southlan-Films feature Jack O’Lantern, which I also starred in. This production also happened to be my first film as a production manager. I would go on to work on the company’s subsequent films Hell’s End, Creatures of the Night, Bad Land, and more recently Evil in the Flesh, to name a few. This experience on those films helped me progress as a producer on Bad Land and Evil in the Flesh not to mention the Beijos Production Chosen, among many other short films in between. It wasn’t until 2009 when I started production on my own feature film House of Secrets that all of the knowledge and prior experience came to a head. On my feature film (which was produced through CenterSeat Entertainment) I wrote, produced, and directed the film (among many other jobs) but I used all my contacts thus far to help get the film made. My co-producer Safaa Sammander was a graduate from GSU and she also acted as my second in command on set and helped keep the production on track. In fact, most of my crew were people I’d worked with at GSU or on one of my previous films. Working on this film was the culmination of everything that I had thus far learned.

“LIFE AFTER COLLEGE”
My college degree was a huge asset in my continuing in my chosen field of film making. Even though I started off in the theatre industry I’ve constantly maintained a presence in the film industry despite the fact that it pays less than theatre. The arts and entertainment field (especially in this economy) is not one that benefits someone in a monetary way (I do work in the low budget industry of Georgia, not Hollywood). I have managed to stay in my field and make a modest living out of it. It’s been hard but if it wasn’t hard then what would be the point? We go to college to continue in a higher learning and continue to further ourselves in a particular field of interest. The lucky ones choose a field that will stay with them forever while all the others have only a piece of paper that reminds them of just how much time was wasted. I’d like to think that I’m a member of the former and I pray that the later one day find their way or go back to college and try again.